A TEENAGE drug dealer who put the lives of children and pedestrians at risk as he tried to escape during a police pursuit around a Bradford estate has been locked up for 18 months.

Isaac Nunney, who was 18 at the time of the incident, drove off at speed in a black Peugeot car when officers in a marked patrol vehicle tried to stop him on the Holme Wood estate last August.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday how Nunney ignored the blue lights and sirens as he reached speeds of up to 60mph on Broadstone Way which has a limit of 30mph.

Prosecutor Zaiban Alam said during the tea-time pursuit Nunney forced other drivers to take evasive actions as he overtook other vehicles and even drove along pavements in the Farringdon Drive area causing pedestrians to jump out of the way.

The Peugeot was eventually driven into a dead-end off Farringdon Drive, but Miss Alam said Nunney then drove on to a grassed area where children were playing and went down a steep embankment on to Stoneyhurst Square.

Miss Alam said concerned parents had been shouting to tell their children to come inside and the police officers decided to abandon the pursuit because of the reckless way Nunney was driving.

The Peugeot was found later and officers acting on information from the public arrested Nunney from the back of another vehicle.

During a search officers found ten one-gramme bags of cannabis on Nunney together with £270 in cash.

The court heard Nunney, now 19, had been living in a caravan and when that was searched officers found £1200 in cash.

Judge Jonathan Rose ordered the forfeiture of the cash and cannabis after Nunney, of Tyersal Lane, Tyersal, Bradford, admitted offences of possessing cannabis with intent to supply, dangerous driving, driving without insurance and driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence.

Barrister Abigail Langford, for Nunney, said he panicked when he saw the police vehicle.

She explained that he had got into debt because of his own cannabis habit and she urged Judge Rose to take account of Nunney's young age and lack of relevant previous convictions.

Judge Rose described Nunney's driving that afternoon as "utterly terrible" and said it so serious that there was no possibility of anything other than a custodial sentence.

The judge said Nunney had put children, pedestrians and other drivers at risk of serious injury or death and added:"You could have killed any number of people and there can be no alternative to custody for that."

Judge Rose explained however that by law the maximum sentence he could pass for the offence of dangerous driving was two years.

"I cannot give you any more than that however much I would like to and however much this particular piece of driving, one of the worst I have seen that has not involved death or serious injury, merits a sentence way over two years," he explained.

The judge said he then had to take account of Nunney's young age, his lack of convictions for similar offending and his guilty pleas.

Nunney was sentenced to 18 months in a young offenders institution and banned from driving for a total of 27 months.

He will also have to take an extended driving test at the end of disqualification before he can lawfully drive on the roads again.